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Governor: Kansas speeding up COVID shots to hit May target

info2021-03-16T07:29:32-05:00March 16th, 2021|

Kansas will give COVID-19 vaccinations faster than planned so that all adults with medical conditions can seek shots next week and the state will aim for President Joe Biden’s goal of having inoculations available for all adults May 1, Gov. Laura Kelly announced Monday. Kelly said the state will launch both the third and the fourth phase of its planned vaccine distribution next week, a week before the expected arrival of 100,000 doses of a single-shot vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson. The combined phase will cover about 600,000 of the state’s 2.9 million residents, after the first two phases covered [...]

String of Wichita earthquakes raising concerns

info2021-03-16T07:29:12-05:00March 16th, 2021|

Eight earthquakes in northeast Wichita between Sunday and Monday morning have raised concerns for homeowners in the city. Most homeowners insurance policies protect your home from damage due to fire, smoke, lightning or even theft but insurance agents say earthquake insurance is typically sold separately. "Most policies will only allow you to add that coverage on at either the inception of the policy or the renewal," said M & M Insurance agent Jonathan Lamunyon.Source: KAKE - News

Riley County caught between lawmakers and KDHE in debate over who controls vaccine prioritization

info2021-03-16T07:28:44-05:00March 16th, 2021|

After the Kansas Department of Health and Environment prevented the Riley County Health Department from rolling out COVID-19 vaccinations according to the county’s specific needs, some state legislators want to minimize the state’s power to intervene in how counties make such decisions. A few weeks ago, Riley County health officials announced they were ready to move into phase three of the vaccine rollout. That would have allowed people in the county with severe underlying conditions, such as cancer and some other illnesses, to get their vaccines ahead of the state’s distribution schedule — and way ahead of what had been predicted [...]

Cluster of earthquakes in east Wichita shake south-central Kansas on Sunday

info2021-03-15T07:56:14-05:00March 15th, 2021|

If you were woken up earlier than you would have liked Sunday morning after losing an hour to daylight savings time, it may have been due to earthquakes that rattled east Wichita. The Kansas Geological Survey recorded four earthquakes early Sunday morning. ... More than 1,600 people reported feeling the strongest earthquake, according to USGS data as of 2 p.m. The vast majority of reports were from south-central Kansas. Additional reports came from near Salina and near Emporia. ... The Kansas Corporation Commission previously determined that the swarm of earthquakes in November and December was not related to fracking. “Based on [...]

Kansas sees its best week of cases in more than eight months

info2021-03-15T07:54:34-05:00March 15th, 2021|

The dropping trend of COVID-19 cases in Kansas continues. The past week in Kansas saw 1,887 new cases, the lowest week since the end of June. The weekly high of cases was more than 19,000 cases at the end of November. From there, it ebbed and flowed before starting to drop in all but one consecutive week so far this year. Friday’s report from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment listed an additional 519 cases, continuing the trend of fewer cases. Each one of the thrice-weekly reports from Sept. 18 to Feb. 19 listed cases in the thousands. The high [...]

Welcome to the only county in Kansas that doesn’t have a COVID emergency

info2021-03-15T07:53:24-05:00March 15th, 2021|

Greetings from Chautauqua, the only county in Kansas where COVID-19 isn’t an emergency. This bucolic and remote county, nestled on the Oklahoma border 100 highway miles southeast of Wichita, is the only place in Kansas that isn’t under a COVID disaster emergency declaration, according to the Kansas Association of Counties. “We didn’t feel like we needed it,” said Rodney Shaw, who serves on the three-member County Commission that doubles as the Board of Public Health. If you wear a mask in Sedan, the Chautauqua County seat, you might as well hang a sign around your neck saying “Not From Around Here.” [...]

Local government groups present ‘bond modernization agenda’ to Congress

info2021-03-15T07:48:37-05:00March 15th, 2021|

Local government groups told a House committee Thursday the reinstatement of tax-exempt advance refunding and tax credit bonds are top priorities for infrastructure financing, part of a "bond modernization agenda." They also highlighted the importance of raising the limit on bank-qualified debt to $30 million as part of that effort. ... Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin of Columbia, South Carolina, a former president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, described the reinstatement of direct-pay tax credit bonds through another round of Build America Bonds as “an excellent complement” to municipal bonds. Although all of the proposals have some bipartisan support in Congress, [...]

Senate sends Kansas property tax reform package to governor

info2021-03-15T07:46:22-05:00March 15th, 2021|

Sen. Caryn Tyson urged fellow senators Thursday to endorse “historic” property tax reform and overlook changes made by the House to lump school districts into the reform package for local governments. Tyson, a Republican from Parker, credited the late Sen. Bud Estes, a Dodge City Republican who died last month, with engaging her several years ago in the process of figuring out how to fix property tax problems in Kansas. “We are literally taxing people out of their homes,” she said in a speech on the Senate floor, shortly before the chamber adopted the law by a 30-5 vote. The end [...]

Bill requires more property tax transparency

info2021-03-15T07:45:31-05:00March 15th, 2021|

A bill that recently passed the Kansas House and Senate would remove the property tax lid enacted on governing bodies a few years ago, replacing it with a requirement to publish notices and hold a public hearing before exceeding their revenue neutral rate. The revenue neutral rate is what the mill levy has to be in order for property taxes to not be higher than the previous year. SB 13 requires governing bodies, such as city and county commissions, to publish legal notices and hold a public hearing before they can exceed their revenue neutral rate for property taxes, and discontinues [...]

Rural Americans in Pharmacy Deserts Hurting for COVID-19 Vaccines

info2021-03-15T07:44:53-05:00March 15th, 2021|

As the Biden administration accelerates a plan to use pharmacies to distribute COVID-19 vaccines, significant areas of the country lack brick-and-mortar pharmacies capable of administering the protective shots. A recent analysis by the Rural Policy Research Institute found that 111 rural counties, mostly between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, have no pharmacy that can give the vaccines. That could leave thousands of vulnerable Americans struggling to find vaccines, which in turn threatens to prolong the pandemic in many hard-hit rural regions. Source: KCUR News

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